I’ve never owned Tesla stock.Sadly.
The board granted an absurd amount of options that would only pay off if the company value went up by more than 10X. And if I’m not mistaken he takes only $1/year in salary, so his entire compensation was in the form of equity. I suspect that the shareholders were quite happy paying $55B over a few years while their stock rose by 10X. And even now after the recent decline it’s still about 5X or 6X.
I hear you and love incentive structures and capitalism, but Wow, $55B seems a bit excessive esp. if you are worth $200B! Maybe follow WEB’s lead and try to build loyalty and trust and treat your stockholders like partners?! Actually makes long term business sense as well imo.
Musk’s 2012 compensation plan was basically “If the company achieves these absurd goals which everybody laughs at and calls impossible, I’ll get a chunk of the appreciation for myself. If the company achieves only impressive gains, I’ll get nothing.” The shareholders approved the deal by a huge margin.
It was completely performance based. He performed! As a shareholder I don’t begrudge him a penny of it. His 2018 plan is similar, with new absurd goals. Much of what must be achieved is revenue and profit, only some is market cap.
-IGU-
TSLA shareholder since 2013
I am sure Warren has different standards for wholly owned companies he buys versus stock in companies he buys for the portfolio, but it occurs to me that there is probably some overlap even if the parameters are not equally drawn.
Mindful that the word “stable” can have two definitions, one meaning “unchanging” and the other being “not crazy”, when he says he’s looking for “stable management” I suspect that buying a large stake in any Musk dominated business would be, to understate it, an easy “no.”
To be clear, I don’t begrudge Mr. Musks pay package at all, good for him!
As WC Fields famously said, “It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.”
But if you think Mr. Buffett is going to invest in a business where all the earnings (and more) go into the pocket of the guy at the top, you may be suffering from a head injury.
(I know, Tesla stock went up in the past so it must go up in the future, got it.
Also Mr. Musk has put shareholder money into bitcoin and dodge coin so how can they lose?)
The main problem with Musk’s pay package is there’s no clock back when business turn sour a few years later. It’s not uncommon for some growing business to perform spectacular for some years and then turn sour.
clawback… now, will TMF allow editing others posts!!! 
I’m an impressionist on English
2008 Elon Musk interview:
BigShan,
BYD is absolutely a good company. Rivian makes a really good truck and better 6 seater SUV than Tesla… there are loads of Chinese electric car companies that are awesome.
BTW: We just got BETA FSD downloaded the other day.
It has taken roughly forever (5 years+) to develop the AI software. AI development is very time consuming, tedious and extremely costly.
My guess is that other OEMs may consider licensing Full Self Driving. It is so impressing. I cannot underscore that enough.
Am enjoying being a Beta trainer!
jan
:^)
Tesla Semi delivered its first batch of semi. 500miles on single charge with 82k pounds.
Faster, Cheaper, Better and Nicer !
“We think that autonomous EV Semis could lower per ton mile costs of freight trucks to price-points competitive with rail.”
“We think that autonomous EV Semis could lower per ton mile costs of freight trucks to price-points competitive with rail.” ~Brett Winton, Ark Investments
Thanks for this, I am always super excited to hear what the world class cheerleaders, er analysts over at Ark investments have to say. Their track record is unmatched! (literally)
On 4/15/22 ARK raised its 5-year target on Tesla to $1,533.
Cathie Wood also said Bitcoin will be worth 1 million per coin by 2030!
Back up the autonomous electric truck, we are gonna be so rich!
TSLA went from from 0 to $600B market cap very quickly. They were much faster than the other fast growers like GOOG, AMZN and APPL v2.
Although I don’t like the companies ARKK picks, I am aligned with their thought that innovative companies will improve productivity and have a massive deflationary effect.
Tesla’s Semi and Cybertruck will have an outsized impact on global goods transportation in next 5 - 10 years.
Bloomstran:
Musk keeps on selling. I know I would.
This just in:
New Tesla Software Update Will Drive Your Vehicle Into A Wall If You Even Mention Another Carmaker…
We got full self driving recently. It is fun being a beta tester.
I got the Christmas update for FSD Beta (2022.44.25.5) last night on my Model S. Haven’t driven it yet to see whether it’s gotten any better with the things it’s been failing at. Maybe later today.
Software updates are always exciting. Other than an update to FSD Beta this one has Apple Music, Steam gaming, Zoom support, and a host of other things, both large and small. Those with the Model Y Performance get Track Mode.
For me, I’ll be really pleased to be able to turn on auto-present door handles again. I’ve had it off since I got really tired of the handles popping out every time I walked past the car while it’s parked at home. But now they’ve added an option to not auto-present at home! With most cars, when they don’t behave quite the way you want, you just have to live with it forever. I love over the air software updates.
Here (FSD Beta 10.69.25 (2022.44.25.5) Official Tesla Release Notes - Software Updates) is one of many places that people have posted the release notes.
-IGU-
I am using FSD routinely and in a 15 mile.
The interventions are minimal and the road have lights, stop signs, left and right turns.
It is far away from being perfect but significantly better than what I had 5 years ago.
My guess it will be 2030 before it is hands free.
After that it is cha-ching !!
I love driving our 2017 X. I like the idea of WEB letting FSD and autopilot taking Emwarren to his favorite McDonalds to … on dodge street…